Elastic fabric with one or more inextensible zones



April 6, 1937.

ELASTIC FABRIC WITH ONE OR MORE INEXTENSIBLE ZONES Filed June 17, 1953 INVENTUR Lows RBUUEE efllmwd m ATTURNEYS Patented Apr. 6, 1937 UNITED STATES.

ELASTIC ranarc WITHHONE on Moan INEXTENSIBLE ZONES Louis JRoques, Paris, France, assignor to Louis Roques and Georges Arrachequesne, Paris,

France, a corporation of France Application June 17, 1933, Serial No. 376,277

In France June 20, 1932 1 'Claim. (01. 66-190) This invention relates to a new industrial product of a knitted, netted or textile nature with elasticity afforded in one direction.

The objects of the invention are to provide in 5 such a fabric, one or more zones wherein the I elasticity is counteracted; to obtain this counteraction of the elasticity without interrupting the continuity of the warp and weft components or threads forming the elastic fabric; to provide a fabric wherein the body has warp and weft threads, one of which is elastic, andhaving nonelastic threads incorporated in desired zones for counteracting the elasticity therein of the elastic thread of the body; to enable the manufacturer to readily incorporate this non-elastic thread, and to'vary the width and form of the zone wherein said thread is included; to avoid sewing and're-stitching; to incorporate the counteract-' ing zon'es during the manufacture of the fabric;

to maintain substantially the general appearance of an ordinary elastic knitted fabric or the like;

to secure simplicity of construction and of the means and method of manufacture; and to obtain other advantages and results as may be brought out in the following description.

It is well known that waist-bands and other articles formed of'an elastic knitted fabric comprise one (or more) threads of cotton or silk forming the 1oops"of the knitting, said thread crossing one another about an elastic thread provided on the whole length of the article; said elastic thread is designed as weft thread in the following description.

It has already been proposed to provide so formed elastic waist-bands, and generally-their middle part which corresponds to the sub-umbilical prominence, with an inextensible strip vertically disposed and adapted to conceal .saidprominence and to hold better the abdominal 40 region; for this purpose, an inextensible piece of drill or batiste was usually sewn on the inner part of the waist-band; this however diminished the solidity of the waist-band (as the seams cut the rubber thread) and increased the thickness,

the weight and the cost of the same.

Waist-bands have also been made-in which all the back was elastic and the front comprised an upper part and a lower partwhich were respectively inextensible and elastic in the whole width of the front. The upper part was made with a weft thread of'inextensible braid and the lower part with an elastic'weft thread, but it is easy to conceive that such fronts of waist-bimda-inextensible in the upper part and elastic in the lower part, fitted badly onthe body and were of no practical use.

In view of obtaining the equivalent of the above mentioned drill or batiste strips with avoiding their inconvenience, it has been also tried to 5 make on determined looms, more particularly on hand rib looms, front part of waist-bands comprising an inextensible middle part; but said front parts comprised three pieces, both side pieces formed of an elastic weft thread and the 1 middle part having only an inextensible braid thread; said three parts were then united either by seaming and restitching made manually or on the loom.

But said seams orrestitchings present great 15 inconveniences as concerns the appearance, the solidity and the cost; with this method, it was furthermore practically impossible to vary at will the form of the nonelastic parts. It resulted from these inconveniences that the fabrication of 20,

'according to the present invention, for avoiding the above mentioned inconveniences. 30

I then had thought of making an elastic knitted fabric comprising inextensible zones without any interruption, seam or restitching between the elastic and nonelastic parts. It' was necessary to centralize the elasticity of the 35 elastic weft thread in each row of looms in the desired 'inextenslble part and I adioin therefore to this elastic thread an inextensible braid thread which acts only in the nonelastic part, while the elastic weft thread passes without interrup- 40 tion from one border of the fabric to the other in each row of looms. Both threads being clamped together in the loop of the fabric, the inextensible braid thread brakes and annihilates the elasticity of the rubber threadin all the 45 loop rows of the part (the dimensions and forms of which may be varied-at will) which must remaininextensible. I

According to my invention, it is thus possible particularly elastic waist-bands, comprising in the ,sense of their elasticity one or more inextensible zones, the form and the width of which may-be varied at will. It is also possible to make straps of different heights, bodices, sheaths 55 to make any desired pieces of knitted fabric, and 50 breast-holders, breast-holder-sheaths piece, waist-bands, braces, under-thighs, bandages, elastic stockings and the like.

The ,fabrics of the invention may have at the limit of the extensible and inextensible zones a non-elastic part bordered on each side with a small border forming the ornament which in the art of knitting is called pekin and in which the elastic weft thread is apparent. On the other side of the fabric, the non-elastic part is bordered with a small border forming the ornament called in the art of knitting stick".

The invention is furthermore applicable to all kinds of knitted fabrics (plain, open-work, ribbed fabrics, pattern fabrics and the like).

In my application for patent Serial No..

755,551, filed December 1, 1934, I have described and claimed improvements in and relating to an ordinary knitting machine in order to render it applicable for knitting said new kind of fabric. Fig. 1 is a plan view of a. portion of elastic fabric made in accordance with my invention.

Figs. 2 and 3 are views of girdles embodying the invention showing different forms of parallel sided inelastic sections formed therein.

The piece of the fabric shown in Fig. 1 comprises for instance side parts or sections w and a parallel sided middle non-elastic part b.

It may be seen that the elastic weft thread e runs from the one end of thepiece to the other and is inlaid in each row of thread loops without any interruption, and that the inextensible in one braid thread 1 (which is shown indotted lines on the drawing and the stroke of which is limited to the formation of the nonelastic part), is inlaid in parallel relation with the elastic thread in the thread loops in this part or sections only of the knitted fabric.

This thread f restricts the elasticity of said elastic thread in the part or section b to a degree to render said section substantially nonelastic. whereby a fabric having the novel and peculiar construction and advantages set forth is produced.

Figs. 2 and 3 show the embodiment of the invention in elastic girdles having parallel sided inelastic sections of different forms produced therein by the inlaying of inelastic threads with the elastic threads in zone portions of the fabric of the girdles in the manner described,

What I claim is: I

A knitted textile fabric having elastic side sections and a parallel sided interposed inelastic intermediate section, said sections being formed of rows of interconnected thread loops, elastic thread inlaid in said rows, and inextensible thread inlaid in parallel relation with the elastic thread in the thread loops in the inelastic intermediate section of the fabric only and restricting the elasticity of said elastic thread in said intermediate section to a degree to render said section substantially non-elastic.

LOUIS ROQUES. 

